Happy Birthday PoPo!

The family gathered today to celebrate PoPo's birthday (my dad). But it turned out that we were celebrating much more than that! We discovered lots of good news today.

First, Braden's little heart and lungs are just fine. We were worried that they were experiencing stress while Braden was eating, but they are not. Braden is having trouble with his pacing while eating. He gets excited, starts eating too quickly and gets very tired. That causes his heart rate to rise and he looses his breath. Annie and Steve learned some new pacing techniques to use while feeding Braden and it has already proved to be helpful. We were very relieved to discover that this problem was somewhat minor and had an easy fix.

The other good news we received was that the doctors removed the nasal cannula! Braden is now officially breathing 100% on his own. This is a tremendous achievement and we're all so very proud of little Braden. He has been fighting through so much and jumping hurdle after hurdle. This one was a biggie and he did it!!!

What a wonderful day. We spent the evening in MoMo and PoPo's backyard listening to music, grilling and doing our best Waylon Jennings impersonations. It turned out to be such a rewarding, relaxing day. I wish you could have all been there to celebrate with us.

Happy Birthday PoPo!